The invention relates to a method of manufacturing solid propellant pellets, especially for an inflator and/or a pyrotechnical actuator of a vehicle occupant restraint system, a solid propellant pellet, an inflator including at least one combustion chamber and a module including said inflator.
It is known from prior art to press solid propellant pellets for inflators from a powdered or granulated solid propellant into cylindrical shape. Solid propellant pellets of this type only permit a limited ratio between the surface and the volume of the pellet, however. In order to permit rapid pressure increases in the inflator an as high ratio of the surface to the volume of the solid propellant as possible is desirable.
It is further known to use solid propellant in the form of granulate of different grain sizes for inflators. In the case of such granulate no defined surface-to-volume ratio can be determined, however, which results in a certain variation of the performance of the inflators. The surface structure of such granulate in general is undefined and such granulate can have an additional proportion of broken granulate or granulate dust, which may equally result in a certain variation of the performance of the inflators.